


It's Very Simple

by RhymeAndTreason



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: 500 words, Flash Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:47:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25695286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhymeAndTreason/pseuds/RhymeAndTreason
Summary: An evening on the edge of Scala Ad Caelum.
Kudos: 5





	It's Very Simple

**Author's Note:**

> You get more practice from a thousand quick, garbage sketches over the course of a week than you do making one as-close-to-perfect painting in the same amount of time.  
> Applying that philosophy to writing, one thing I'm trying to do is write one complete short piece every Sunday. That doesn't mean it'll always get done, or that I'll always post it, but with any luck I'll improve faster if I try this.  
> 
> 
> ... Google Docs, AO3, and the word counter site I use sometimes are all giving me different counts, so I don't actually know if this is 500 words or not.

Salt and seagull cries fill the breeze. The sun dips low, well on its way to resting with the heroes of old in their watery grave. A young man stands on the stark-white pier, weapon in hand.

It’s very simple, Xehanort thinks. He waves the Keyblade as if tracing a shape in the air. Actually, it sort of resembles the way the adults back home jerked and yanked their fishing rods after they got a bite, just much, much slower and with infinitely more grace.

Well, what Xehanort hopes is infinitely more grace. He has only had the Key for a few days, and he imagines that to a veteran like Master Odin, both probably look nearly equal in clumsiness. Xehanort knows he still has far to go, but he knows that it’s simple, too. Time and practice, that’s all.

He traces a few more experimental lines in the air. Each one is a little tighter, more focused. A little more like the illustrations in the textbooks.

The Keyblade lances forward. Xehanort exhales heavily, straightens his back, and drags back the leg he thrust forward. Then he lunges again. The Keyblade pierces ----- something. He’s not sure what. Is it a monster? Is it a lock? No, it must be a monster - but what kind of monster is it? Is it a complacent, indolent, and foolish monster, like the fishermen of the Destiny Islands? Is it a feckless young monster who strayed too far? Is it a clever monster that secretly shapes destinies? Is it an ignorant monster that bars his path, a monster the same as a lock?

… No, it’s simply air. He is simply miming a battle against his imagination; shadow-boxing and nothing more.

He stands there with his knee bent and his arm straight. He looks like one of the figures from the textbooks. Like the ink leapt from the paper world into this one.

This world of Scala Ad Caelum is a place where he can learn much. It’s everything he had ever dreamed of in the bygone days when he stood on the brink and stared past the sunset. But now he knows Scala Ad Caelum exists, he knows that other places exist, too.

It’s very simple, Xehanort thinks. This world is a stepping stone. The biggest yet, but still just a stepping stone; it won’t be long until he steps onto the next. There are miles to go before he sleeps. So very many miles that the Destiny Islands couldn’t contain them all. So many, there aren’t enough in Scala Ad Caelum to walk. So many, the whole wide Realm of Light might not even be enough.

He twists the Keyblade, like it’s an ordinary key, like he’s doing something as simple as locking his bedroom door when he leaves in the morning.

Xehanort feels like he’s caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, and -----

\----- and It’s very simple, Xehanort sighs, feeling something indescribable well up inside.

_ This world is just too small. _


End file.
